According to a recent study published in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, the link between prison time and mental illness is a two-way street.

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| HealthDay

Eugene King ran away from home at the age of 16, the start of a lifelong pattern of drug abuse, crime and incarceration.

In retrospect, King said, he realizes he was using illicit drugs at least in part to self-medicate a variety of psychiatric conditions. But he also realizes that prison, with its lack of adequate medical treatment and what he called a generally abusive environment, only made his problems worse.

"It exacerbated (the mental illness) without a doubt," said King, now 62. ...